clatter
Americanverb (used without object)
-
clatters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
clattered,
past participle, past
-
clattering
present participle
-
to make a loud, rattling sound, as that produced by hard objects striking rapidly one against the other.
The shutters clattered in the wind.
-
to move rapidly with such a sound.
The iron-wheeled cart clattered down the street.
-
to talk fast and noisily; chatter.
They clattered on and on about their children.
verb (used with object)
-
clatters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
clattered,
past participle, past
-
clattering
present participle
noun
-
a rattling noise or series of rattling noises.
The stagecoach made a terrible clatter going over the wooden bridge.
-
noisy disturbance; din; racket.
-
noisy talk; din of voices.
They had to shout over the clatter at the cocktail party.
-
idle talk; gossip.
verb
-
to make or cause to make a rattling noise, esp as a result of movement
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(intr) to chatter
noun
-
a rattling sound or noise
-
a noisy commotion, such as one caused by loud chatter
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
clattersimple
-
clatterssimple
-
have clatteredperfect
-
has clatteredperfect
-
am clatteringprogressive
-
are clatteringprogressive
-
is clatteringprogressive
-
have been clatteringperfect progressive
-
has been clatteringperfect progressive
Past
-
clatteredsimple
-
had clatteredperfect
-
was clatteringprogressive
-
were clatteringprogressive
-
had been clatteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of clatter
before 1050; Middle English clateren, Old English clatr- (in clatrunge ); cognate with Dutch klateren to rattle; see -er 6
Explanation
A clatter is a clacking or rattling sound, like the clatter of horse hooves on pavement or the clatter of toys being thrown down a wooden staircase by an angry child. Clatter is also a verb, meaning "to make a continuous rattling or clanking sound." You might clatter down the school hallway in your clogs, or watch your dogs clatter across a frozen pond, their toenails clicking on the ice. Clatter comes from the Old English onomatopoeic clatrung, "a clattering," or simply "noise."
Vocabulary lists containing clatter
Unit 4: Powerful Openings
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Milkweed
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Couture’s” three principals rarely interact with one another, but those meaningful exchanges argue that, amid the mad clatter of the everyday, a brief, unguarded moment with a stranger can be supremely restorative.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
The clatter of cutlery as an atmosphere sours over dinner.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026
Aromatics are where things begin: ginger, garlic, onions and their cousins; the soft clatter of mirepoix or soffritto; a bloom of spices warming in fat.
From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2026
Dishes clatter, steam bursts from large cooking pots and music is seeping through the bustling chatter of Russian pensioners, hunched over bowls of free meals in a Saint Petersburg soup kitchen.
From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026
They dropped their spades in a clatter, grabbed the root, and hurried home.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
She watches a humanoid robot totter around a demonstration kitchen until it trips on a chair and clatters to the ground.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
A conveyor clatters as the last papers are carried to the bundlers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2024
Brian Bathurst is a builder by trade but when we meet he is strapped in the back of a coastguard helicopter as it clatters through the dramatic peaks of Glen Coe.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2023
But at the very moment of its triumphant recovery, the painting clatters to the floor, by simple accident.
From New York Times ● Jul. 22, 2021
The tray lists, and I barely have a chance to grab the cream pot before the teaspoon clatters to the ground.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
Persistent rain turned torrential and the first two throws of the women's hammer throw slipped from athletes' grip and clattered into the cage as thunder cracked above the arena.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
But the moment that may have sealed Argentina’s fate came in the final minutes of second-half stoppage time when Enzo Fernández clattered into Spanish center back Pau Cubarsí at midfield, flipping him head over heels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
Busy markets sold butchered meats and fast-wilting vegetables, horse carts clattered, children shouted, and men and women gossiped in coffeehouses and read from printed newspapers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
But moments later Davide Bartesaghi clattered into Mikael Ellertsson, leaving Stanciu with the task of beating France goalkeeper Mike Maignan and taking a shock three points.
From Barron's ● Jan. 8, 2026
In a cloud of dust, an old jeep clattered down the road.
From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat
Once it missed the dishwasher altogether, sending a plate clattering to the floor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Surrounded by sons and grandsons under a clattering ceiling fan, Safi showed the tattered identity document he has kept since fleeing the Soviet occupation more than four decades ago.
From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026
“Ups & Downs” is an instrumental with a droning keyboard—perhaps a harmonium—along with a clarinet and clattering percussion that sounds like a drum kit being slowly unpacked from its case.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
Track 80, “Room Service Ooh,” is exactly what it sounds like, with a clattering lid being lifted off a plate followed by Lindhome’s exclamation at what’s underneath.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2025
The tires on my faithful old bicycle had finally given out and I had joined the hundreds clattering about town on metal wheel rims.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
